25th July, 1897.

MY DEAR MARIE, I have time, will, and opportunity now to clear my promise. So my letter begins. I have been very weak for some time, and with that and other things my visit to England this Jubilee season had to be postponed.

I was very sorry at first not to be able to meet my nice and very dear friends once more, but Karma cannot be avoided, and I had to rest contented with my Himalayas. It is a sorry exchange, after all; for the beauty of the living spirit shining through the human face is far more pleasurable than any amount of material beauty.

Is not the soul the Light of the world? The work in London had to go slow - for various reasons, and last though not the least was l"argent, mon amie! When I am there l"argent comes in somehow, to keep the mare going. Now everybody shrugs his shoulder. I must come again and try my best to revive the work.

I am having a good deal of riding and exercise, but I had to drink a lot of skimmed milk per prescription of the doctors, with the result that I am more to the front than back! I am always a forward man though - but do not want to be too prominent just now, and I have given up drinking milk.

I am glad to learn that you are eating your meals with good appet.i.te. Do you know Miss Margaret n.o.ble of Wimbledon? She is working hard for me. Do correspond with her if you can, and you help me a good deal there. Her address is, Brantwood, Worple Road, Wimbledon.

So you saw my little friend Miss Orchard and you liked her too - good. I have great hopes for her. And how I should like to be retired from life"s activities entirely when I am very old, and hear the world ringing with the names of my dear, dear young friends like yourself and Miss Orchard etc.!

By and by, I am glad to find that I am aging fast, my hair is turning grey. "Silver threads among the gold" - I mean black - are coming in fast. It is bad for a preacher to be young, don"t you think so? I do, as I did all my life. People have more confidence in an old man, and it looks more venerable. Yet the old rogues are the worst rogues in the world, isn"t it?

The world has its code of judgment which, alas, is very different from that of truth"s. So your "Universal Religion" has been rejected by the Revue de deux Mondes. Never mind, try again some other paper. Once the ice is broken, you get in at a quick rate, I am sure. And I am so glad that you love the work: it will make its way, I have no doubt of it. Our ideas have a future, ma chere Marie - and it will be realised soon.

I think this letter will meet you in Paris - your beautiful Paris - and I hope you will write me lots about French journalism and the coming "World"s Fair" there.

I am so glad that you have been helped by Vedanta and Yoga. I am unfortunately sometimes like the circus clown who makes others laugh, himself miserable!

You are naturally of a buoyant temperament. Nothing seems to touch you. And you are moreover a very prudent girl, inasmuch as you have scrupulously kept yourself away from "love" and all its nonsense. So you see you have made your good Karma and planted the seed of your lifelong well-being. Our difficulty in life is that we are guided by the present and not by the future. What gives us a little pleasure now drags us on to follow it, with the result that we always buy a ma.s.s of pain in the future for a little pleasure in the present.

I wish I had n.o.body to love, and I were an orphan in my childhood. The greatest misery in my life has been my own people - my brothers and sisters and mother etc. Relatives are like deadly clogs to one"s progress, and is it not a wonder that people will still go on to find new ones by marriage!!!

He who is alone is happy. Do good to all, like everyone, but do not love anyone. It is a bondage, and bondage brings only misery. Live alone in your mind - that is happiness. To have n.o.body to care for and never minding who cares for one is the way to be free.

I envy so much your frame of mind - quiet, gentle, light, yet deep and free. You are already free, Marie, free already - you are Jivanmukta. I am more of a woman than a man, you are more of a man than woman. I am always dragging other"s pain into me - for nothing, without being able to do any good to anybody - just as women, if they have no children, bestow all their love upon a cat!!!

Do you think this has any spirituality in it? Nonsense, it is all material nervous bondage - that is what it is. O! to get rid of the thraldom of the flesh! Your friend Mrs. Martin very kindly sends me copies of her magazine every month - but St.u.r.dy"s thermometer is now below zero, it seems. He seems to be greatly disappointed with my non-arrival in England this summer. What could I do?

We have started two Maths (monasteries) here, one in Calcutta, the other in Madras. The Calcutta Math (a wretched rented house) was awfully shaken in the late earthquake.

We have got in a number of boys, and they are in training; also we have opened famine relief in several places and the work is going on apace. We will try to start similar centres in different places in India.

In a few days I am going down to the plains and from thence go to the Western parts of the mountains. When it is cooler in the plains, I will make a lecture tour all over and see what work can be done.

Here I cannot find any more time to write - so many people are waiting - so here I stop, dear Marie, wishing you all joy and happiness.

May you never be lured by flesh is the constant prayer of -

Ever yours in the Lord,

VIVEKANANDA. * *.

C.

(Translated from Bengali.)

To Swami Ramakrishnananda

ALMORA,.

29th July, 1897.

DEAR SHASHI, I got information that your work there is going on very well. Get a thorough mastery of the three Bhshyas (commentaries), and also study well European philosophy and allied subjects - see to it without fail. To fight with others one requires sword and shield - this fact should never be forgotten. I hope Sukul has now reached there and is attending on you all right. If Sadananda does not like to stay there, send him to Calcutta. Don"t forget to send to the Math every week a report of the work including income and expenditure and other information.

Alasinga"s sister"s husband borrowed four hundred rupees from Badridas here, promising to send it back as soon as he reached Madras; inquire from Alasinga and tell him to send it quickly. For I am leaving this place the day after tomorrow - whether for Mussoorie Hills or somewhere else I shall decide later.

Yesterday I delivered a lecture in the circle of the local English people, and all were highly pleased with it. But I was very much pleased with the lecture in Hindi that I delivered the previous day - I did not know before that I could be oratorical in Hindi.

Are there any new boys joining the Math? If so, then carry on the work in the same manner as it is being done in Calcutta. At present don"t use up your wisdom too much, lest it should become completely exhausted - you can do that later on.

Pay particular attention to your health, but too much coddling of the body will, on the contrary, also spoil the health. If there is not the strength of knowledge, n.o.body would care twopence for your ringing of the bell - this is certain; and knowing this for certain equip yourself accordingly. My heart"s love and blessings to you and to Goodwin and others.

Yours affectionately,

VIVEKANANDA. * *.

CI.

(Translated from Bengali.)

To Swami Ramakrishnananda

AMBALA,.

19th August, 1897.

DEAR SHASHI, I am very much pained to hear that the work in Madras is not prospering for want of funds. I am glad to learn that the amount borrowed by Alasinga"s brother-in-law (sister"s husband) has been received back in Almora. Goodwin has written to me to inform the Reception Committee to take some money for expenses from the amount that is left as a result of the lecture. It is a very mean thing to spend the money received on the occasion of that lecture for the purpose of the Reception - and I do not like to tell anybody anything about this matter. I have understood quite well what the people of our country are when it comes to money-matters. . . . On my behalf, you personally talk with the friends there and politely make them understand that it is all right if they can find ways and means to bear the expenses; but if they cannot do so, all of you come back to the Math at Calcutta or go to Ramnad and establish the Math there.

I am now going to the hills at Dharamsala. Niranjan, Dinu, Krishnalal, Latu, and Achyut will stay at Amritsar. Why did you not, all these days, send Sadananda to the Math? If he is still there, then send him to the Punjab on receipt of a letter from Niranjan from Amritsar. I intend to start work in the Punjab after a few days" more rest in the Punjab hills. The Punjab and Rajputana are indeed fields for work. I shall write to you again soon after starting work. . . .

My health was very bad recently. Now I am very slowly recovering. It will be all right, if I stay in the hills for some more days. My love to you and to Alasinga, G. G., R. A., Goodwin, Gupta, Sukul, and all others.

Yours affectionately,

VIVEKANANDA. *.

CII.